1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for moving mechanical arms and more particularly to moving two arms in a hugging motion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hugging mechanisms are known in the prior art and have been devised with a variety of configurations for the purpose of providing mechanical hugging or squeezing on a human or object. These mechanisms have been adapted to be used with toys including androids having a pair of arms and hugging an object located between the arms and body of the mechanism. Prior art patents show many hugging mechanisms for dolls and toy animals; however, these mechanisms do not hug as a human would. Although "Huggable" is one of the most common advertising descriptions for toys such as a Teddy bear, toys having a hugging feature have not been widely popular in the United States.
For example, the prior art discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 1,800,775 a figure toy having a body hingedly supporting a pair of single member arms linked to the toy's legs. The arms pivot horizontally forward only at the shoulders when the legs are squeezed together. The use of legs for actuating the arm members, limits the toy's hugging capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,365 discloses a doll with movable arms that hinge only about the shoulder. Resilient body members support, in spaced relation, articulated arms that house yielding curved metal strip members which extend from the front of the body into the arms. Pushing in and releasing the rear of the body causes the arms to pivot only horizontally forward.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,053,008 discloses a hugging doll having front and rear body members hinged at the bottom. When pressed inward, the front body member, which is in sliding, unattached contact with a yielding curved metal strip, pivots the strip ends and the arms they support horizontally forward. For the latter two mechanisms, the hugging pressure of their arms is limited by the yielding requirements of the strip material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,125,828 discloses an animated doll. A body supports single member arms and legs hinged to move horizontally forward in a single axis only at the shoulders and thighs. Pushing inward on a vertically pivoted chest member, hinged at the body bottom, causes sliding, unattached contact of inward ends of wire members inside the body to pivot rearward and cause the outward ends of these wire members with attached arms and legs to rotate forward.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,132 discloses a doll having embracing movement with single member arms. A front body member, when pushed inward, causes the short legs of L-shaped arm members to pivot rearward and the long legs of these same L-shaped arm members to pivot horizontally forward at the shoulders.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,671 discloses a huggable toy mechanism with rearward bent arms hingedly attached midway up each side of a front plate. Short linkages are hingedly attached behind each arm and midway up each side of a parallel rear plate. When the plates are squeezed together, the stiff arms pivot horizontally forward at the shoulders. Hinge binding is possible if pressure is applied above or below the arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,270 discloses a doll with baby hugging capabilities having a rear plate supporting single member, L-shaped arms which pivot horizontally at the shoulders. When a chest member pushes rearward the short end of the L, the stiff arms rotate forward on the long end of the L.
In the following two patents, dolls with multi-segmented arms with cables attached to a short outer arm portion of the outermost arm segment, extend through front openings on each arm segment, and are attached to a body member. When the cables move inward, each appendage pivots forward, only horizontally, about rear hinges between segments. Inward movement of the cable reduces the reach of the arms. The multi-segmented arms do not bend or hug like human arms but contact the person hugged only at the end of outer segment which is like hugging with only the finger tips touching. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,227, the cables are pulled inward by a motor. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,188, opposed leaf springs bow apart to pull inward the opposite cable and attached arm. Without moving the whole doll body, these mechanisms disclose little or no ability for each arm to pivot to a different angle to provide good hug on a person not centered on the mechanism.
The above prior art disclose two types of arm actuating mechanisms for pivoting arms horizontally at the shoulder. First type mechanisms have single segment arms and hug when two spaced body members are squeezed together. Second type mechanisms have arms with multiple, relatively short segments which hug when a front cable extending to the outermost rear linked segment pulls the arm segment inward, possibly like an octopus.
The above patents show arm members which do not act as a human arm and neither pivot forward at an elbow nor provide a human-like hug.
The above prior art mechanisms are generally designed for normal sized dolls which have insufficient arm reach to effect an encompassing hug on many children. Their small arms often push outward rather than pull inward the person being hugged by the mechanism.
These mechanisms have constructions which are not robust or have small pressure surfaces which actuate their arms or have arms which contact only a small area of a person being hugged.
The above patents disclose no substantial capability for vertical arm movement about a shoulder to allow the doll's arms to avoid the user's arms.
These prior art dolls with their arms always extended horizontally look less human than dolls with the ability to pose with their arms down.
It can be concluded that a toy that provides a user with a more human-like hug has been a long needed, substantially unrecognized, and unreached goal for the consumer until the present invention. To eliminate the above problems and fulfill the need for a new and improved hugging mechanism, the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art and provides a hugging mechanism which applies the necessary arm motion, pressure, and comfort so that a person feels better after receiving its hug.